Transition slows disability payments

Like the majority of California workers, Anaheim resident Carol Dickey paid into the state's disability insurance program with each paycheck. When a surgery in October left her temporarily unable to work for the first time in her 41-year career as a registered nurse, Dickey filed for benefits.

Dickey, 61, said she filed for disability benefits as soon as she became eligible, the day of her planned surgery Oct. 16. Two weeks into her six-week-long recovery, her first benefit payment had not arrived as expected.

Dickey said she tried for weeks to contact the disability program through an automated phone system (which immediately hung up on almost all of her 75 calls), the program's website and visits to the program's office in Santa Ana. A similar automated phone system has frustrated callers seeking help with unemployment benefits, the Watchdog reported last month.

“I felt like I had no resource, nobody I could go to to say, ‘What do I do?' ” Dickey said. “I've worked for 41 years – I've never not worked – and the one time I need these people it's this difficult? I felt like I was less than human to constantly have to be tracking this down.”

Eventually, officials told her a “computer glitch” had delayed her payments, Dickey said. All six weeks of payments arrived in a lump sum Dec. 16 – two weeks after Dickey returned to work.

Dickey isn't the only temporarily disabled worker who has been left waiting for benefits in recent months.

In order to meet its own performance standard, the state-run program – which gives financial help to people who are temporarily unable to work because of an injury, illness, or new child – must send out 86 percent of first disability insurance payments within two weeks, said Kevin Callori, a program spokesman.

In November and December, the program missed the mark, sending out 41 percent and 31 percent late, respectively, according to Callori. Data for October were not available.

California's disability insurance program is administered by the state Employment Development Department, or EDD, and funded by state-mandated deductions from employees' paychecks. In the last fiscal year, the program received 732,812 claims and paid $4.34 billion in benefits. The disability insurance program began falling short of its timeliness standards after the Oct. 9 launch of State Disability Insurance Online Registration, a new online claims system, Callori said. The launch of the new online system kicked off a labor-intensive transition from the program's old, paper-based filing system.

Since launching the online system, EDD has accepted both paper and online forms to file claims, Callori said. The department planned to stop accepting paper forms March 1.

The extra work required to make the transition from a paper-based system to an online method caused delays and interruptions of claims program-wide, Callori said.

“As with the implementation of any new, large, automated system, there is always a transition period for both customers and staff,” Callori said. “There has been additional workload created in this transition, which can affect claims within the entire program.”

EDD employees had been working overtime and on weekends to fix problems and improve the timeliness of first payments, Callori said. He said officials hoped to get processing and payment up to speed within a couple of months.

Maggie Fussell, 61, of Westminster, said it was understandable that the transition to the online system had slowed down services, but failure to make prompt payments can create true hardship for hurt or sick people.

Fussell said she used other financial resources to support herself when she received only four weeks of benefits during her 12-week-long recovery from a surgery in mid-September (the balance arrived two days after she returned to work in mid-December).

But a friend who also had surgery last year was not so lucky, Fussell said. The friend waited more than five weeks for her first payment, then returned to work before she had fully healed because she needed to earn money for her mortgage payment, Fussell said.

“There are a lot of people who don't (have a financial cushion), so they're waiting and waiting and waiting,” Fussell said. “I'm not so concerned for myself as I am for other people who are in a worse situation.”

To help expedite the processing of claims, Callori suggested that people:

Submit and monitor claims using the new online system.

Get and complete an original claim form. To get an original form, contact your doctor or employer, visit EDD's website or call 1-800-480-3287 (1-866-658-8846 for Spanish).

Email EDD with any questions at
https:// askedd.edd.ca.gov/asp/frmEDDCOMM.aspx and allow a few days for a response.

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